Amazon and Target are among the latest major retailers to stop selling weighted sleepwear for babies due to concerns about safety. Here, a woman pushes a stroller as the New York skyline is seen from Weehawken, New Jersey.
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Amazon and Target are among the latest major retailers to stop selling weighted sleepwear for babies due to concerns about safety. Here, a woman pushes a stroller as the New York skyline is seen from Weehawken, New Jersey.
AFP via Getty Images
Three of the nation’s largest retailers have pulled weighted baby sleepwear from their shelves amid growing concerns the products could be dangerous for babies.
The decisions by Amazon, Walmart and Target come amid repeated warnings from federal regulators, medical experts and safe sleep advocates about the potential dangers of products such as diapers and sleeping bags that contain extra weight .
“This is an important first step, and infants deserve more,” Dr. Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement. “Exhausted parents should not have to become part-time product safety regulators, but our current system forces them to do so by allowing infant products to be placed on the market without proof of their safety.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, also announced last week that he was calling for an investigation into two of the largest weighted infant sleepwear companies in the United States – Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean – following allegations of deceptive security-related marketing. of their products.
“The stakes are simply too high to allow weighted infant sleep products to be advertised as ‘safe,’ especially without a clear warning explaining the lack of an agreed-upon standard for determining safety,” Blumenthal wrote in an April 25 letter to Federal Trade. The President of the Commission, Lina Khan.
Tara Williams, founder and CEO of Dreamland Baby, said she believes her company’s products are safe and that reviews of weighted sleepwear for infants have no evidence to prove otherwise.
“We’re a small company, and at this point, it’s the United States government that stands in the way of Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean,” Williams said. “This is not a new product category. It has been around for over 10 years. There are over 3.5 million (products) sold without any risk.”
Dreamland Baby has sold more than 1 million weighted sleepwear items, while Nested Bean has sold more than 2.5 million items.
Manasi Gangan, founder and president of Nested Bean, said her company offers a “safe and effective sleep tool” that has helped millions of babies.
“Any assertion to the contrary is false,” she said. “We look forward to working with the FTC and Senator Blumenthal and getting back to what we love: helping families get a good night’s sleep.”
Are weighted baby sleepwear safe?
Manufacturers of weighted sleepwear for infants say their products can help comfort young babies and soothe them into restful sleep, the same way weighted blankets work for older children and adults.
But critics argue that weighted sleepwear for infants could harm babies’ developing bodies and hamper their ability to breathe and pump blood. They warn that clothing can also prevent infants from moving or waking up if they are in a position that makes them unable to breathe. Skeptics say more research is needed to prove weighted sleepwear for infants is safe.
“It is imperative that products specifically designed for infants undergo rigorous safety testing and meet the highest standards before being made available to the market,” said Michelle Barry, founder of the organization. non-profit Safe Infant Sleep, in a press release.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health have all warned against the use of weighted sleepwear for infants.
There has been little scientific research into the safety of weighted sleep products for infants. A safety study published in the journal Advances in neonatal care in 2020, they reported “no adverse events” in babies who slept under a weighted blanket, but their heart rates slowed and sessions lasted only 30 minutes at most.
In a safety study conducted on behalf of Nested Bean, researchers found that a one-ounce weight applied to an infant’s chest “did not provide clear indications for or against” potential respiratory risks, but that weights of 3 and 9.5 ounces “could increase potential danger and subsequent risk” due to lower respiratory rates and faster pulses.
Williams said Dreamland Baby is currently conducting a safety study of its products with researchers at Indiana University.
Richard Trumka, commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said he wrote letters to several retailers alerting them to “several infant deaths” from weighted sleep products. CPSC spokeswoman Patty Davis said the commission is aware of one death from a weighted infant sleep product.
Williams said she was aware of two deaths involving weighted infant sleep products, but that the autopsy reports for both deaths mentioned unsafe sleep practices and one of them did not mention all weighted product.
Gangan said the coroner’s report on one death cites “a tragic combination of several proven unsafe sleep practices.” It does not mention a weighted product or a Nested Bean product.”
She said she believed Trumka’s letters “inaccurately attributed several infant deaths” to weighted infant sleep products.
“The death of a child is an unfathomable tragedy, but such an incident does not give public officials the right to spread unsubstantiated allegations, especially when they endanger a small, minority-owned, female business,” said Gangan.
Weighted sleepwear for babies removed from store shelves
Amazon, Target, Walmart and the website Babylist all confirmed to NPR that they no longer sell weighted sleep products for infants.
An Amazon spokesperson said it informed sellers in early April that they would no longer be able to offer weighted infant sleep products for sale, a policy change the company said it made “keeping customer safety in mind.
Natalie Gordon, founder and CEO of Babylist, said in a statement that the company values ”doing what’s best for growing families and staying tuned to the latest guidance from the world.” industry, that’s why we stopped selling these products.”
In a post on X, Trumka said the retailers’ actions “could save lives, and I am grateful for their cooperation.”
Trumka also said Nordstrom had stopped selling weighted sleepwear for babies, but the company did not immediately respond to an email seeking confirmation.
Williams said she has not heard from any of the retailers who have stopped selling weighted sleepwear for babies and that Dreamland Baby has not had any incidents with any of the companies.
Blumenthal calls for federal investigation
In his letter to the FTC, Blumenthal said both manufacturers claim their products are safe, even though there are no standards for weighted sleepwear for infants and the American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that products are dangerous.
“I think there is enough evidence of potential harm to warrant an investigation. That’s the minimum this federal agency should do,” he told NPR. Referring to the companies’ past marketing claims, he added that “other agencies should join us in demanding that these companies tell the truth.”
The FTC declined to comment.
Blumenthal said he became interested in the topic after hearing parents’ concerns and fears about weighted sleepwear for babies. “And the more I learned, the more troubled I became and the more unanswered questions I asked,” he added.
For example, Blumenthal said Dreamland Baby’s marketing claim on its website that its products “exceed all Consumer Product Safety Commission standards” was misleading because there is no standard for baby clothing. weighted night for infants.
Williams said this language references existing CPSC standards for things like flammability and lead requirements. She added that while Dreamland Baby staff did not believe the claim was misleading, the company removed it so as not to confuse customers.
“Really trying to work with everyone involved – CPSC, AAP – we want to make it very clear: Here’s what the product is. Here’s what it does. Here’s the expected results,” she said. declared.
Gangan said Nested Bean representatives shared the research behind their marketing claims with Blumenthal staff and then changed a few of those claims to make them more specific.
“Requesting a federal investigation into two women-owned small businesses may reveal nothing more than what has been shared openly and candidly, which would only strain our resources and harm our ability to help families sleep in safely,” Gangan added.
Blumenthal said he was “considering legislative action if federal agencies fail to use their existing authority.”
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